Grandpa... tell us about the war |
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John Louis 
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Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Status: Offline Points: 99 |
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 Posted: 20 Feb 2014 at 14:48 |
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Some of you may find this relevant and/or interesting: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/a-short-treatise-on-the-early-history-of-illyriad_topic5454.html
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geofrey
Postmaster General 
Joined: 31 May 2011 Status: Offline Points: 1013 |
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Posted: 18 Feb 2014 at 14:37 |
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I was originally the leader of a small merry band of Lords and Ladies that called themselves Affirmative Action. We were originally stationed in Keshalia but had relocated many settlements to Southern Zanpur. We have made friends with neighbors in Keshalia and Zanpur that included several Consone alliances, as well as The Colony before the days of the DarkStar Dominion. When it became apparent that Harmless? had orchestrated a large scale attempt to dismantle Consone, I became concerned for my friends. Doubtly so when Kale Weathers agreed to put The Colony on Harmless's side. Affirmative Action was not part of Consone, but we had a vested interest in keeping a friendly presence around us. As a result we began contributing to Consone military efforts to prevent loss of cities. As history will tell us, this did not go well. My alliance's initial surrender during the Great Trove War. Inbetween The Great trove War and the current War, I agreed to a proposal set forth by Boru to merge Affirmative Action and ViCX. This new VICX created a consolidated geographical powerhouse in the southeastern hemisphere. And then the current war began. Edited by geofrey - 18 Feb 2014 at 15:18 |
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Nokigon
Postmaster General
Player Council - Historian Joined: 07 Nov 2010 Status: Offline Points: 1452 |
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Posted: 18 Feb 2014 at 10:56 |
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Thank you, Elmindra. That fills in a couple of gaps I had. EE handled themselves very well there, but I don't regret the first siege. We may have lost a lot of infantry, but it was on good terrain-buildings- and it was to defend an extremely active and fast growing player.
I have quite a few more stories that I could tell you all. I think that I'll talk to you about the best of the enemy players that we fought. When we started the war, I had a shortlist of the players who I wanted to target in our local region. Top of this list was Taelin, and we narrowly failed to siege his city Sinde. We did at least damage it badly, and indeed it never regained the same level of population. The other person whom we were interested in neutralising was sevenonefour. Earlier, we had tried to attack sevenonefour to take out his armies. When we did this, we discovered something annoying. He just doesn't sleep. Whenever we attacked him, he would simply dodge our attacks, no matter what time of day we were sending them at, and hit us back. As such, we decided that we ought to siege his city. We had excellent coordination on this particular siege. We had enough reinforcements to handle what we knew vCrow had in the immediate vicinity, and we were confident we could pull this siege off. But when the troops arrived, one of my more inexperienced people hit siege instead of occupy. A second before Sabre Wulf's siege arrived, another siege with no catapults turned up. You can imagine my frustration. We never actually returned to siege 714, as Bane had joined the war by this point which made sieges in our local area untenable. However, our direct siege attacks still pretty much levelled the town.This, as it turned out, annoyed sevenonefour. He then went on a bit of a rampage. He targetted Carl Zeis and Vertigo. Using direct siege attack, he levelled four cities belonging to Vertigo and two belonging to Carl Zeis. Having done this, he turned his attention onto sieges. BANE had previously tried and failed to siege Aemonn's fifth city, but 714 tried again and, this time, succeeded. We hit back hard at his capital with a wave of direct siege attacks, almost levelling the entire city, but this didn't stop him from continuing to fight hard. He was the sender of the siege against Sergito's Siparia. In this siege, Sergito had some 12k T2 spears. He dodged an attack from Hyo, and in the time when his troops were moving 714 hit raze, and succeeded. Presumably, the phalanxes were left in the ether. Take this as a shout out to a great player. 714 did not have the largest armies I have ever encountered, but he uses them better than anyone else I have ever seen. Now I'm not at war with him and I'm not obliged to dislike him... kudos!
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Angrim
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Joined: 02 Nov 2011 Location: Laoshin Status: Offline Points: 1173 |
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Posted: 18 Feb 2014 at 06:03 |
this thread will be much more fun if we can keep the speculations about causes and motives out of it. thanks to Miklabjarnir, Nokigon, Elmindra and The Duke for their respective tales. if anyone has a disagreement with something said by another player, let him tell his own tale to set things right. |
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Miklabjarnir
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Joined: 07 Mar 2012 Status: Offline Points: 73 |
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Posted: 18 Feb 2014 at 02:38 |
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I totally agree with Brandmeister that my Archduke Ferdinand-analogue was a bit stretched, but my intention was to indicate that we are talking about wars both sides wanted. I also firmly believe that the current war would not have happened except for the previous one. The peace conditions may have been fair, but the ideological issues were not resolved.
I think much good information is coming out of this thread. I do not doubt that old alliances have a number of accounts sat for a very long time, but I do not see that as necessarily bad. I personally know of at least one account which has been sat for the better part of a year before the owner got enough RL breathing room to come back and take control again. Besides, only people totally living their life in the game will be able to effectively sit more than a couple of accounts. Even without having many "permasat" accounts, an old alliance will have huge stockpiles inherited from players who have left. With safe storage in hubs, this is possibly enough to keep fighting for months. My impressions from the market is that the war has increased regional differences. People at war may not have the time to shop around or having stuff shipped over half the map. This is good for those of us who have invested in many traders, and could open for more arbitrage deals. Another thing is that I believe you have to use untold amounts of Prestige if you commit all out to a major war. That is, obviously, very beneficial to everybody. As long as Illy has income, they will be able to improve it. I both hope and believe Brandmeister is wrong about Illy becoming like other games. From what I can see, only those who want to take part in the current war (or stick with their friends) are involved in it. This kind of split is good for everybody. Elgea will have a crisis if everybody choose the same style, whether it be peaceful or warlike.
Edited by Miklabjarnir - 18 Feb 2014 at 02:43 |
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The Duke
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Joined: 22 Jul 2011 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 464 |
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Posted: 18 Feb 2014 at 01:11 |
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First and foremost Id like to respectfully disagree also with Mik on the issue of Consone pressing their views ect and the reasons of that war. Also I will point out that Consone as a whole may have been destroyed however I felt most alliances were given reasonable terms to surrender from the conflict aside from maybe EE and a few other miscellaneous terms.
~Prior to the onset of the war I had my alt account in NC, where I fought Bane and Insanity Inc. I enjoyed the friendships and warlike play NC and its members have had since shortly after their journey began. Being part of a small close knit group that's active everyday and was something I had not experienced yet in my tenure here. I spent more time on my alt than I did on my main account. It was around this time my brother in RL started playing and I needed to make a switch from elf to orc. Knowing this was possibly the last time Id ever actually go through with the move I abandoned my alt and in doing so left NC. In the meantime I was setting Shade up to be a competitive military style alliance built for tourneys and Veteran Illy players. War seemed to be on the brink- It seemed as though blood was on on the breath of everyone. The air was becoming thick and whatever each alliances choke point was their tolerance was less and less. The fact that we had no tourney for ages meant illy was full of troop counts, negative gold, and people willing and ready to prove their mettle. War broke loose and with them- many major armies that had been horded for the better half of a year. Illyriad seen battles for the record books, unknown men and women carving their names in with the Gods, and those that were once great proved why, or they were cast away soon to be forgotten like so many before them. Shades initial targets were those closest to them in Kal Tirikan and freemorn. We knew they were active, and if not were actively sat based on the last tourney. Our primary focus were the freemorn cluster of Harmless. After being evenly matched or out matched the previous tourney in that region we knew it would be an uphill battle. Not only did Harmless display prowess in the last tourney but they did so coming fresh off a war. Our initial Sieges were met with Heavy resistance. John 5420, Leanthar, and alas Tordenkofffen did not disappoint. Their armies were heavy and well led, dealing a 2-1 kill death ratio at nearly every hit. This is when my time in NC really helped me. NC was second to none at one thing. War. To win a war you needed to be active, and timing was most crucial. I had a meeting with our strategist and trusted generals setting sieges in favorable terrain along with precise timing. With every siege we landed we would launch a follow up siege shortly after. It became apparent that with the continued Barrage and Shades superior sov/cities in the area we were making considerable headway. At some point some of our members lost the sense of containment I had hoped we could keep, destroying one account to the last city, and others losing 4-5. I then reached out to H? and after a week or so reeling in some of our members we moved on from the freemorn region which had proven broken and bloodier than I would have ever imagined. We continue to march, farther and farther south. The enemy has regrouped and I can only imagine the pain we have felt thus far is minute in comparison to what lies ahead. ~
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"Our generation has had no Great Depression, no Great War. Our war is spiritual. Our depression is our lives."
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Deranzin
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Joined: 10 Oct 2011 Status: Offline Points: 845 |
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Posted: 17 Feb 2014 at 21:59 |
/facepalm  Anyway, to the topic ... the simple explanation (since longer explanations will eventually lead to quibbling ) is this : Any long-standing status-quo that is trying to please as many people as possible is bound to displease most people or eventually turn everyone against it and illyriad was no exception to this rule ... such is the way of the world and the nature of our species ... What IS amusing in that habit of our existence though is that the next condition that we strive for and hope that it will be better (or more beneficent ), usually turns out to rarely be like that ...  If you enjoy the ironies of life, stick around and you are going to have grand fun  |
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Elmindra
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Joined: 10 Sep 2012 Status: Offline Points: 464 |
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Posted: 17 Feb 2014 at 21:41 |
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Now that is exactly what this thread needed Noki, nicely done. In that spirit, I will tell our side of that specific story.
After finishing our campaign on H? in the north, EE decided to move south and east against the Dominion who had been stalwartly entrenched in battle for some time against our allies. After a round of long distance sieges and reinforcement operations against The Colonist Empire, we decided that another direction was needed. Fearing that outside influence was hardening TCol's resolve, it was determined that a focused campaign against another Dominion force was required. Scouting parties were sent, and forces were taken measure. But either by our pride or by our past conquests, our first attacks were met with both superior resistance and proper planning. Our first siege was cleared out of a group of buildings, but not without a large number of swords that I determined that Dark Blight could not afford to lose. A large scale siege was sent to a mountain range, but some armies arrived too late to prevent the ambush set from destroying a good number of our siege engines. Once the bulk of forces arrived it was apparent the enemy could not dislodge us, but neither could we storm and raze the town of Asa Wright. After gaining a proper measure of our enemy, and with it a proper respect, we landed more sieges against their General Sergito. Towns were razed and enemy troops were killed in terrain not favorable to them due to their previous loss of swords. Troops arrived from all members of DB who still had them at home, but it was too little too late. What was later learned was that the enemy had troops marching to their doom in a last ditch attack against an allied leader. Surrender quickly followed after these battles, but indeed the greatest respect was gained for our foes in Dark Blight. They taught us to not gauge the strength of our foes upon the ease of earlier victories, and bloodied our troops in a way we had not seen up to that point. On a side note and completely out of storyteller character, nicely done Noki in both the on the field showing and in the spirit of the above post. You and your alliance definately have earned the respect of EE, and hopefully you have continued growth and success.
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Brandmeister
Postmaster General
Joined: 12 Oct 2012 Location: Laoshin Status: Offline Points: 2396 |
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Posted: 17 Feb 2014 at 18:59 |
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Although I think Miklabjarnir gave a decent account of the Trove War grudges, I disagree with his Archduke Ferdinand analogy (note for history buffs: take it elsewhere, this isn't a WWI history thread). Both major wars had one side openly looking for a pretext, and the other side purposely and flagrantly giving it to them. There were many points along the road to war where both sides could have defused the situation, and instead opted for escalation. I would describe both server wars as voluntary conflicts between opponents who had long known they were going to war. The need for a pretext is one of the bizarre things about Illyriad--apparently nobody is willing to admit that in a video game, you don't need an elaborate reason to start a battle.
The strange thing about the current war, in my own opinion, is the apparent number of empty accounts. Both sides seem to have huge armies of sat accounts. I would speculate that each major combatant (the well known players, not the peons) is controlling at least 4-6 accounts. There seems to be evidence that several players are running many more than 6. Market prices have actually fallen on many commodities, simply because the fighting accounts are supplied by many other permasat feeder accounts. I used to think that permasat accounts were a minor problem (and I maintain they are not the cause of map crowding), but the power they allow individuals to project is unfair to newer players, simply because the oldest alliances collect the most big permasat military accounts. This war is also characterized by the annihilation of isolated accounts. While some players were allowed to surrender, others were hunted down even after they left their alliance and the war. I think that from this point forward, Illyriad will be a more brutal game with mega-alliances acting like traditional MMO warlords. I don't anticipate that Broken Lands will change that, whenever it might arrive. In short, I believe this war is when Illyriad became like other MMORTS. It might have been inevitable; I'm not even sure it's regrettable. It is what it is. |
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Nokigon
Postmaster General
Player Council - Historian Joined: 07 Nov 2010 Status: Offline Points: 1452 |
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Posted: 17 Feb 2014 at 18:32 |
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Actually I quite like the premise of this thread. I will tell you, then, about the events leading to the surrender of the dominion.
The three alliances which comprise the dominion are TO, TCol and DB (my alliance). At this time, TCol were being the main focus of enemy attention out of the three. After a failed attempt to siege a city belonging to Asjeff, they were the weakest out of the three of us, too. In comparison to peacetime troop levels, DB was probably best off. As such, I requested and then rejected peace terms in an attempt to attract attention onto us and away from TCol; at the same time, the Dominion engaged ourselves in a last ditch effort to siege Ely, a city belonging to Asjeff- the rook of nCrow. It was a gamble that we could withstand the enemy; we would either break them, or be broken ourselves. The ploy to draw the enemy into attacking us was a success. EE put down a number of sieges against us; perhaps underestimating us, we were able to break the sieges which we chose to retaliate against. The turn in our fortunes came with a mass set of sieges against Sergito. The first siege against him was very nearly prevented from ever arriving- we stacked the siege square with reinforcements, and had we put down another 5k or so the siege would not have landed. Such is life. However, the siege army was badly damaged and it could not get Asa Wright down to siegable size. The next couple of sieges were less successful, and Siparia and Three Pools fell in quick succession. Asia Wright itself and Diego Martin were crippled. Our last reserves were used trying to defeat these sieges; our only other troops were going to Ely. If we couldn't win at Ely, then, defeat would be inevitable. The siege at Ely was a failure. The Dominion were so badly weakened by war by now that even the combined efforts of the three of us was not enough to hold off against nCrow. Even our direct siege attacks were defeated by the reinforcements in the city. With no troops and sieges landing daily, victory had become impossible. We therefore took the decision to surrender. |
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Miklabjarnir wrote: